Astrology News Service » astrologer Pat Harrishttp://astrologynewsservice.com
Wed, 30 Nov 2016 14:32:03 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.3.6Reluctant Sleep Researcher Delivers for Astrologyhttp://astrologynewsservice.com/news/reluctant-researcher-delivers-for-astrology/
http://astrologynewsservice.com/news/reluctant-researcher-delivers-for-astrology/#commentsWed, 31 Jul 2013 20:44:21 +0000http://astrologynewsservice.com/?p=1303A reluctant college professor who feared his discovery might cause peers to regard him as a “lunatic” inadvertently stumbled onto an important research finding that flies in the face of conventional scientific explanations for the way people experience reality on planet earth.

Curiously, all of the test subjects in Professor Christian Cajochen’s laboratory at the University of Basel in Switzerland were asleep when study data was collected – some more soundly than others.

London Times science correspondent Tom Whipple provides this account:

Prof. Cajochen, a psychiatrist who studies circadian rhythms, was having cocktails with colleagues at a local pub. The full moon had risen and was flooding their table with light.

When the conversation turned to shop talk some of the professor’s colleagues complained they slept less well when the moon was full. After years of studying sleep patterns, Prof. Cajochen realized he had enough data to check out these claims and made a decision to do so the next day.

It was the researcher’s intention to prove his friends wrong by disproving their hypothesis: sleep patterns are influenced by the full moon. “To my surprise I couldn‘t,” he reportedly said.

What the psychiatrist found was a result he knew conventional scientists would be inclined to heckle. Most scientists believe they have the physical universe pretty well figured out and moon beams don’t figure in their calculations.

Also, almost certainly, Prof. Cajochen must have realized that his findings would provide aid and comfort for astrologers and support for the ancient cosmological worldview that embraces organic connectedness between the heavens and earth.

For his test, Prof. Cajochen used data collected 10 years earlier for another study. Only this time, 33 participants between the ages of 12 and 75 were grouped based on whether the moon was new or full when they entered the laboratory for extended testing.

Results of the test are described in the journal Current Biology. The researchers found that those who came into the sleep laboratory during a full moon took five minutes longer to fall asleep and had 20 minutes less sleep on average. Even more significantly, test subjects spent 30 percent less time in restful deep sleep than those who entered the lab under a different lunar phase.

“It was a quite considerable effect,“ Prof. Cajochen told the London Times.

But it took him more than four years to publish the results because he worried what peers in the scientific community might think.

One expert who might sympathize with the researcher’s reticence to tell his story is biologist and author Rupert Sheldrake. His newest book, Science Set Free, presents the idea that science is being held back by centuries-old assumptions that have hardened into dogma.

“The biggest scientific delusion of all is that science already knows the answers. The details still need working out but, in principle, the fundamental questions are settled,” he said.

British astrologer, writer and lecturer Robert Currey commented on the study’s credibility. What adds weight to Cajochen’s study is the fact that data used by the research team was collected 10 years earlier for a different study, he says.

“By being retrospective, critics will find it hard to claim any experimental or selection bias of subjects or data. A simple mechanism such as increased moonlight can also be ruled out as the subjects slept in a dark room in the sleep laboratory,” he added.

The full moon is a major aspect or angle astrologers call an opposition. From our vantage point on earth, this angle or aspect occurs when the sun and moon – or other planetary bodies – line up 180 degrees apart in opposing astrological signs,

Among other things, the full moon opposition may coincide with a period of increased stress or tension. The individual’s vitality (represented by the sun) and personal or emotional needs (the moon) may be conflicted in some way, Currey says.

“Perhaps the urge to be active and creative takes away from satisfying bodily needs like sleep. Conceivably, this lack of sleep might even account for the unusual behavior that tends to occur around the full moon according to lunar lore,” he noted.

British astrologer and Editor Pat Harris, PhD, says spiritually-attuned Tibetan monks would probably agree with this assessment, at least in part..

Harris is editor of Correlation, a journal published by the Astrological Association of Great Britain (AA). She says the monks are very much attuned to the moon’s phases, using them to regulate sleep patterns among other things.

“The scientific experiment at the University of Basel seems to confirm the monks’ experiences” she says.

“It could be argued that the monks have conscious expectations regarding how the lunar phase will affect their behavior. However, this confounding factor doesn’t apply to the Switzerland sleep study.

“From secondary reports and the researcher’s summary we learn that neither the 33 volunteers nor the scientists conducting the tests were aware of the lunar phase at any time,” she said.

]]>http://astrologynewsservice.com/news/reluctant-researcher-delivers-for-astrology/feed/1Can Astrology Bring You A Baby?http://astrologynewsservice.com/newsmaker-interviews/can-astrology-bring-you-a-baby/
http://astrologynewsservice.com/newsmaker-interviews/can-astrology-bring-you-a-baby/#commentsSat, 15 Dec 2012 20:49:54 +0000http://astrologynewsservice.com/?p=1149An online program designed to help medical professionals swiftly identify optimal dates for fertility treatments based on astrological indications may be coming soon to a clinic near you.

Astrologer Pat Harris, PhD, reports that a system based on ground-breaking research she completed for her doctorate thesis at the University of Southampton, UK, is in the early development stage. The research, titled Applications of Astrology to Health Psychology: Astrological Factors and Fertility Treatment Outcomes, successfully demonstrated that certain angular relationships of Venus and Jupiter to planets in a woman’s natal birth chart can identify those years in a woman’s life when she is more likely to bear children.

The research makes it easier for interested patients and clinicians to incorporate astrology into fertility treatment plans. Women can now find optimal dates for successful conception – with or without assisted reproductive technology (ART).

Dr. Harris is Editor of Correlations, a journal published by the Astrological Association of Great Britain (AA). She also earned a masters degree in health psychology from the University of Southampton, and has been a consulting astrologer for more than 30 years.

“I have clients who have been with me for more than 20 years who keep returning for life management advice. Some would ask if they would marry and have children and when this would be. I used traditional astrology to locate the years when there was a strong likelihood of these events happening in their lives.

“Astrology didn’t let me down as I had considerable success with these forecasts for natural conceptions,” she said.

Dr. Harris says a decision to look at astrology and fertility treatment outcomes was made because the treatment process is stressful and invasive as well as being expensive. And because the rate of success is poor – only one in four in the UK.

“If a new method could be found to reduce the number of treatments needed to succeed this would be invaluable in every way to women who hope to have children through assisted reproductive technology,” she added.

In an interview with the Astrology News Service (ANS) Dr. Harris provided the following insights:

ANS: Can astrology bring you a baby?

Dr. Harris: Based on my research I believe the answer to this question is a very clear yes. Clinicians may wish to consider use of astrology to select dates for embryo implantation because of its potential to increase the likelihood of a successful outcome. However, it is very important that the patient understands that astrological indicators do not guarantee success. My research shows only that attempts to conceive during optimal times have an increased likelihood of success (the birth of a live baby) compared with attempts made when the indicators are not present. It should also be made clear to patients that the absence of favorable astrological indicators means only that the chances of succeeding may be lower and does not portend a failed outcome.

ANS: When and how was your research carried out?

Dr. Harris: Between 2000 and 2002 I collected data from woman volunteers in the U.S., Australia and the UK who had undergone fertility treatment and were willing to let me explore their outcomes. I looked at the volunteers’ birth charts and the dates at which they underwent embryo transfers, including IVF (in vitro fertilization); ICSI (intra-cytoplasm sperm injection); IUI (donor insemination); and other forms of treatment, such as GIFT (gamete intra-fallopian transfer) and ZIFT (zygote intra-fallopian transfer).

For the study I used a very sophisticated statistical model called logistic regression. With this model, different variables can be considered together to see if any of them might account for the apparent significance of another. With this model I was able to consider many different variables like age, belief in astrology, location of clinic, experience of depression, levels of anxiety and reproductive health problems together with astrology to see if any of them had an impact on any significant finding regarding astrology and treatment outcome.

The first exploratory study looked at 114 treatments and found that astrology, clinic location, and family history (reproductive health problems) all had significant associations with success and failure of outcome.

Between 2003 and 2005 I gathered new data from women patients attending to National Health Service (NHS) clinics and one private clinic for a replication study that was intended to test only the factors found to be significant in the first exploratory test. In the second study I examined 55 treatments and ran the model developed for the first study. This time, only astrology was significant with a 94 percent likelihood the result was not a chance finding.

ANS: What astrological methods did you use?

Dr. Harris: I developed the astrological model by referring to authors such as Ptolemy and William Lilly (17th century), who had described particular associations of astrology with times in a woman’s life when she was likely to have children. Using these and other sources for information on ancient astro-fertility associations I divided the 114 treatments from my exploratory group into two treatment outcome groups: successes (resulting in the birth of a live baby), and fails (a live birth not achieved). I checked the astrology for each group using the women’s birth charts and time of embryo transfers. To be determined was the absence or presence of astrological transits or secondary progressions that, traditionally, are believed to be present when children are born.

By carefully assessing the differences in each group I was able to build up a picture of a collection of astrological contacts that were significantly more likely to be present at embryo transfers for a successful outcome compared with embryo transfers that resulted in failure.

ANS: What are transits and secondary progressions?

Dr. Harris: An astrological birth chart (or natal chart) is a map of planetary positions in the sky at the time, date and place of birth for any individual. But the birth chart isn’t static; it continually evolves or progresses over time.

As they orbit the sun transiting planets form new stressful and/or helpful alignments with the planetary placements in an individual’s birth chart. In the fertility study, the only significant transits observed involved transiting Jupiter aligned with or conjoined with either natal sun or natal Jupiter in the birth chart.

To find secondary progressions astrologers advance planets in the natal chart using a day-for-a-year formula. Simply, in the progressed horoscope, planets in the natal chart are advanced the exact number of degrees they have actually traveled in a single day, either forwards or backwards. For example, to find out how far planets have symbolically progressed by age 30 the astrologer counts forward 30 days from the date of birth and casts a new chart for that day using the time and coordinates for the place of birth for the original birth chart.

Progressed planets can form new angular relationships with either natal or progressed planets in an individual’s birth chart. In the fertility study a number of progressed alignments were significant when fertility treatment was carried out during the windows of time when these astrological progressions and/or transits were active. These included:

Progressed sun and Venus making exact contact (a conjunction) within six months each side of the date when the contact became exact in the year or years being forecast..

Progressed moon making exact contact with natal Venus within two weeks on each side of the date when the contact became exact in the year or years being forecast.

Progressed Jupiter making contact with natal sun, moon, Venus or Jupiter. Or Jupiter contacting the major angles (ascendant ad midheaven) of the chart – all within three months on either side of the date when the contact became exact in the year or years being forecast.

Progressed ascendant or midheaven making exact contact with Jupiter and Venus within six months on each side of the date when the contact became exact in the year or years being forecast.

ANS: What can we take away from your fertility study?

Dr. Harris: The research did not directly confirm ancient writings on fertility indications in astrology. But it did clearly support the association of Venus and Jupiter with fertility and an increased likelihood of having children.

My original research increased the likelihood of a successful outcome when fertility treatment was timed to coincide with my researched astro-fertility windows by 10 percent when the birth time was known to within half an hour and 14 percent when the exact birth time was known. Continuing research with new data has enabled me to increase that percentage to 21 percent and 23 percent respectively.

ANS: What does the future hold?

Dr. Harris: I’m currently working on additional data and with alternative healthcare professionals with the objective of further improving the model and its effectiveness as a diagnostic tool. Importantly, the data I’ve continued to collect in my practice has supported the original study findings.